Chains of Asmodeus

Random Encounters in Nessus

The River Lethe

The River Lethe is, if possible, less navigable than the River Styx. In many places the river plunges over vast, wild falls, and devils have had to laboriously build complex sequences of locks to permit their great river barges to safely traverse the drops.

On occasion, political feuds between devils spill over into direct sabotage and action. Consignments of valuable goods—souls, sorrow wine, magic artifacts, and mortal prisoners—are wrecked or sunk as one diabolic magnate strikes indirectly against a rival. The falls of Telkalal are a favorite location for such skullduggery.

The barge is carrying a tithe from the archdevil Orvrastus, intended for Nessus. The loss of this tribute will bring Orvrastus into bad odor with Asmodeus. A variety of pettifogging bureaucratic obstinacies have resulted in Fierna of Phlegethos becoming irritated by Orvrastus, and she has sent a team of four erinyes to haul the barge astray. Instead of traveling into the calm waters of the locks, the erinyes are attempting to drag the vessel over the falls, while the infernal crew back the engines and launch missiles at their flying tormentors.

A dispute between devils may not be of overt interest to mortals such as the characters, but the treasures on board may well be—whether they constitute people to be rescued or valuables to be pilfered. In the chaos of the fight, it might be possible to get on board the ship, loot it, and get off before it goes over the falls.

Alternatively, the characters could assist the vessel's demise, and then hotfoot it below to sieve the River Lethe for spilled treasures. In doing so they must contend with not only the usual denizens of Nessus, but habitual mobs of infernal salvagers intent on acquiring the same riches.

The Plains of Nessus

[image: In an attempt to escape Nessus, desperate souls have stolen an armored wagon.]

There is a saying in the Nine Hells, that nobody works harder than Asmodeus. The lord of all the Nine Hells neither sleeps nor rests, and whilst most of his servants devote plenty of time to sating their hedonistic pleasures, the greatest of all Fiends constantly bends his mind to the corruption of the planes and the ensnaring of souls.

Even Asmodeus permits himself some entertainment from time to time, though his joys are little different to his duties. At times he enjoys hunting some of the more formidable captive souls in his possession.

Those he torments personally are, of course, lost beyond any hope of retrieval. Not one of them will ever escape his grasp. However, the finest razor edge of torment is that he persuades each one of them that there is a hope of reprieve. For his hunts, he often likes to allow his prey to think they've broken out of the prisons of Malsheem and that they've some sort of chance at freedom.

In this case, Asmodeus has permitted a gang of desperados to stage a breakout, purely for the joy of hunting them down.

The supposed escapees are a selection of some of the worst the mortal planes have had to offer over several centuries. Their current leader—though they fight among themselves a lot—is an orc warlord named Ormogg (neutral evil, orc assassin with 120 hit points), whose hordes despoiled cities and burned forests and flooded dwarven holds with magma, but they've great sorcerers, wicked priests, tyrants and murderers among their ranks. As befits prisoners of the Nine Hells, each one is irredeemably evil. They've stolen—been permitted to steal—a vast armored wagon drawn by a monstrous beast, and now they ride it across the barrens of Nessus with a ragged mob of devils hounding their heels. Asmodeus watches on, greatly amused, until he decides to send in his special hunters.

Asmodeus's former captives are well used to the torment of Fiends. His Bright Hounds are something else. The breaking of angels is an especial pleasure to the lords of the Nine Hells. Asmodeus revels in perverting them to his while, twisting them into cruel falcons. He has stables of them, no longer resembling angels but their radiant power might still bite the hand that unhoods them. They represent an additional test of his mastery that makes the whole hunt truly interesting.

The Bright Hounds are comprised of four devas and two planetars (lawful evil and delivering necrotic damage instead of radiant). The characters, encountering the wagon on its headlong flight, might get involved in a variety of ways. The wagon's inhabitants, believing they know a way out of Nessus (which conveniently is at the Oasis of the Lethe, but is also just a lie planted by Asmodeus) may offer them a place aboard in return for fighting off the devils—only to be revealed as monsters almost as bad as the devils outside. The angelic hunters may provoke pity, though there is little the characters can do for them save end them.

O1: Arrival

Within the buildings of the Oasis there are libraries that would make a sage weep, telescopes and scrying pools and all manner of divinatory instruments to look into Nessus and the river and the wider planes. There are debating rooms and places for quiet contemplation. Any mortal who has ever valued the pursuit of knowledge instantly feels that they've come home.

O2: Home of Teskethmus

One of the most respected minds of the current roster of scholars at the Oasis is that of Aldri Teskethmus, a living human archmage of the Red Wizards, who theorizes that the traditional arrangement of the planes is merely an artifact of mortals' limited ability to comprehend the wider universe.

O3: Home of Orvedarc

Orvedarc is a duergar heretic priest-scholar who died centuries ago and has spent time in the Nine Hells both in torment and in service to devils. Now released, he works on his incomplete research into the nature of divinity and divine magic.

O4: Home of Isitrix

Isitrix the Termagant is a sahuagin magician-queen (mummy lord but she isn't Undead, her creature type is Humanoid) who in life brought wars that encompassed entire oceans, but who now peaceably studies the River Lethe and its curious mechanics.

O5: Home of Elihandrel

It is an inevitable fact that those long-dead souls at the Oasis are mostly of evil persuasion. There are other incautious mortals who fall into Asmodeus's power, but the majority of souls in his domain are those drawn to the Nine Hells by the choices they made in life. However, the arch-magister of the Oasis, Elihandrel (use empyrean stats but Elihandrel is Medium sized), keeps order. His word is law, as much as Asmodeus's is within Malsheem. Those who won't abide by his codes of peace and scholarly amity know that a return to the Nine Hells awaits.

Elihandrel himself is an ageless high elf, robed in simple grey. He appears mild, confident in his authority and power, proud of the peaceful community he has built. His soft-spoken word is the end of any disagreements, ensuring that those under his charge never let civilized debate get out of hand. His guests have everything they need—the trees bear endlessly nutritious fruit and there are always books, tools, and scholars' supplies of surpassing quality. He even sanctions research expeditions to other layers of the Nine Hells. At his beck and call are a staff of curiously meek devils, still monstrous of aspect but on their very best behavior. Elihandrel himself reports to Asmodeus on a regular basis, sharing all the knowledge that his faculty uncovers. He denies that he is in any way enabling evil. Learning, he insists, is without alignment. His ultimate goal is to push past the adversarial model of the universe that has trapped all life in constant conflict, law against chaos, good against evil. He genuinely believes that a full understanding of the planes can lead to a perfect future without hardship or sin.

Elihandrel is very eager to spread word of his faculty out into the wider planes. He maintains correspondence with a number of temples, universities, and mage schools on the mortal planes. Whilst the appeal of studying the secrets of the Nine Hells is plain to evil mages and luminaries of all kinds, Elihandrel is very keen to maintain balance by attracting those of other aspects as well. He writes persuasively of the possibility of studying the heart of evil with an eye to countering its influences. One must truly understand a thing before one can defeat it, is his frequent refrain. Scholars visiting the Oasis from the mortal planes find the opportunities of the place overwhelming. There is always something new to learn—and not just miserly scraps but the great truths of the universe hanging just out of reach like fruit ready to be plucked. Conversation with other resident scholars is transcendent, opening the doors of the mind. Very few ever want to leave once they arrive.

O6: The Library

The knowledge contained within the library is unrivaled. An amnizu (see Monsters of the Multiverse) is the caretaker of the library, but also fully empowered to modify or annul contracts. Before the characters can ask for his assistance however, they need to prepare their arguments. The legal documents section of the library is where the characters find books that contain the clauses they need to build their case. However, if they want to look around the library before getting to work, there are many other sections of interest at the Library of Infernal Knowledge. Once the characters are ready to start searching for the clauses needed to annul their contracts refer to the "Legal Documents" section.

Personal Growth

All these books work exactly as described in the Dungeon Master's Guide:

• Manual of Bodily Health
• Manual of Gainful Exercise
• Manual of Quickness of Action
• Tome of Leadership and Influence
• Tome of Clear Thought
• Tome of Understanding

Magical Power

There are various arcane scrolls and books here.

Religion

Several religious tracts focus on topics pertaining to divinity and describe new and powerful 9th-level spells. After a week of study and communion with the source of their divine magic, clerics and druids can learn the following 9th-level spells:

• Dire Winter. This allows the caster to bring about a winter across an entire continent that lasts for 2d12 years.
• Vengeful Gaze of the Gods. A powerful single target spell that simply annihilates anything that doesn't possess legendary resistance.

Item Crafting

There are various other tomes here too:

• The Tomes of Asgardian Metal Working. Describes how to forge the Hammer of Thunderbolts and various Belts of Giant Strength in half the normal time and at half the cost. Additional margin notes suggest ways to make these items even more powerful.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Read the following only if there are corrupted characters among the group. It should be read aloud when the caretaker reviews the contract of a corrupted character.

The caretaker informs the corrupted characters of their predicament. If they want to improve their own fates, they have one more stop to make: they need to plead their case before the Triad at Asmodeus's palace in Malsheem.

Escape

As soon as the caretaker undoes one of the characters' soul contracts, Asmodeus realizes what is happening and initiates a purge (see "The Purges" section for more information). Every minute that the characters remain at the Oasis, they must roll on the Random Encounters at the Oasis table.

Once the characters have escaped the Oasis, they're relatively safe as long as they continue to use the magic that keeps Asmodeus from knowing their location. If some of the characters are corrupted, they must travel to Malsheem and try their luck with the Triad. Otherwise, proceed to the "Leaving the Nine Hells" section at the end of this chapter.

The Purges

[image: An unholy deal: no one but Elihandrel survives the purges.]

There is, of course, a problem with the Oasis. This is Nessus, after all.

The deal that Elihandrel made with Asmodeus is known to almost none. Nobody really gets a chance to talk about it once the archdevil collects. Despite being beyond Nessus' physical borders, the Oasis remains in Asmodeus's domain, and Elihandrel must pay rent for his tenure there. At irregular intervals, carefully calculated by complex infernal clocks, the forces of the Nine Hells visit the Oasis and sweep it bare of everyone save Elihandrel himself. Every scholar and soul is hauled off to Malsheem, to be dissected for all they know and then put to eternal service or suffering as Asmodeus prefers. To study at the Oasis is to tacitly permit the Nine Hells a claim to your soul, and over the centuries the archdevil has drained the best and brightest minds of the planes by indulging Elihandrel's little project. The arch-magister himself considers the deal unfortunate, but a small matter compared to the vast reams of learning that his charges uncover. After all, the libraries remain intact. Nothing, therefore, is truly lost.

Read the following narration aloud when a purge occurs:

Knowledge That Doesn't Travel

The learning of the Oasis, that seems infinitely convincing to all the scholars who debate within its leafy halls, doesn't travel. Like a wine of uncertain vintage, the further you carry it from its region of origin, the less satisfying the taste. The cast-iron logic of Elihandrel and his fellows weakens, or else becomes abstruse, impossible to follow. It all sounds very intelligent until someone starts picking at the details, and then it seems to mean nothing at all. Asmodeus's last joke on the Oasis is that almost everything that those serious and high-minded scholars write down is complete nonsense once taken away from the curious influence of the Oasis itself. Almost everything. The final barb of the archdevil is that every so often something that Elihandrel disseminates to the wider planes turns out to be of incalculable value, a true insight for the ages, perhaps even a weapon that can be turned against the Nine Hells. Those little scraps of true value mean that even those scholars who suspect the true nature of the Oasis still hear the siren call of temptation. After all, are they not the greatest minds of the age? Surely, they will be shrewd enough to outwit the trap the Oasis represents. And Asmodeus smiles to himself as yet another great sage descends to Nessus clutching one of Elihandrel's invitations, because there is no pride sweeter than the folly of the wise.

The Triad: Rimmon, Zagum, and Buer

This triumvirate of bloated devils were angels once, who fell alongside their master back at the dawn of all things. Rather than committing to taking arms against the gods or embracing their fate, they attempted to play lawyer with the divine. For an age they sought to escape their fate by exploiting technicalities in what it truly meant to rebel or be counted among the supporters of Asmodeus. Eventually, their legalistic hair-splitting failed, and the gods delivered them to their master, who viewed them with utter contempt. He transformed them from their radiant angelic forms into great floating sacs of flesh and made them his notaries, so they could exercise their lawyerly talents in his service.

The Triad might appear homogenous to mortals at first sight, but they have different natures and predilections. Just as deities of fate often have a threefold nature, spinning, weaving, and cutting the strands, so the Triad are an equivalent for the contracts of the Nine Hells:

• Rimmon. (see the accompanying stat block), vast with weaving tentacles protruding from his form, drafts the twisted wording of Asmodeus's agreements—festooned with hidden loopholes, and buried subclauses to bind the unwary while denying them the rewards they truly seek. He has a fiendishly creative mind, fond of games, wordplay and inordinately long sentences with clause nested within clause until any sense of meaning eludes the reader entirely.
• Zagum. (see the accompanying stat block), is the interpreter of contracts, who takes the complexities Rimmon creates and uses them against the signatories, arguing the case of the Nine Hells in courts across the planes and ensuring that even the wiliest soul can't escape Asmodeus's reach. He is a dry, thoughtful devil with a sense of humor. In those rare occasions where a mortal advances a line of argument that interests or surprises him, he has been known to recruit them to his staff of twisted legal minds—as an alternative to having Asmodeus's eternal enmity. While Rimmon is an introverted wordsmith, Zagum is gregarious, happy to share a joke and a drink with a mortal he is about to shackle to eternal torment.
• Buer. (see the accompanying stat block) is the torment. Her role is to enforce the contracts once Zagum has proved their binding nature beyond any doubt. Her hideous maw can chew over souls eternally and she is utterly without mercy, the inflexible lash of the law. When the Triad are forced to fight, it is Buer who brings the physical threat while the other two rely on magic to support her. Their greatest weapon, in the fray, is that those who are bound by infernal contracts are automatically vulnerable to their powers. In the small print of all their agreements is a clause of implied consent, so that every spell cast by the Triad can evade any attempt at resistance, and any physical defense comes to nothing. When you sign the contracts of the Nine Hells, you really are agreeing to get everything you deserve, whether you want it or not.

The Contracts

The Triad acknowledges that the characters have likely come to Malsheem to nullify the contracts that bind either them or one of their loved ones. They have the power to nullify the contracts, but only if the characters give an item of value or provide a service.

A Service to Be Provided

[image: Baalzebul's slug form]

The characters could opt to trick Baalzebul into leaving Maladomini, so that Asmodeus can turn the archdevil back into his slug form. To do this they must capture Baalzebul's trusted lieutenant Abigor. Asmodeus knows exactly where the infernal submersible that Abigor captains can be found. Once they capture the submersible, they must use the aboleth within the infernal submersible to lure Baalzebul into trying to rescue Abigor. When Baalzebul turns into a slug and realizes he has been tricked, he does everything in his power to kill the characters.

Items of Value

Alternatively, the characters might offer items of value:

• Two very rare magic items or one legendary magic item are appropriate payments.
• One of the characters' life and soul.

Leverage

The characters can avoid the previous options if they've come across knowledge that gives them leverage over Asmodeus:

• If the characters have discovered the plans that Asmodeus gave to the Brothers Morax and Adramalech, then they can use this as leverage. However, if they have the plans on them, then the Triad reminds them that those can easily be taken off of their dead bodies.
• If they learned the secret of Asmodeus's origins from Abigor's aboleth, that is significant leverage.

Negotiating

This final negotiation is influenced by the choices the characters made during their time in the Nine Hells. If they're corrupted their options are severely limited. However, if the characters managed to keep their souls relatively untarnished, they have more options and may be able to outmaneuver the Triad. For each individual character, check the Final Outcomes table in appendix E to see which options are available in the negotiation.